Décor on Disney Fantasy sets it apart from Disney Dream

The Disney Fantasy debuted in 2012 and sails out of Port Canaveral. The Fantasy is the sister ship to the Disney Dream and the fourth ship in the Disney Cruise Line fleet.

Kristin Ford, Orlando Sentinel

Disney Cruise Line's next ship, the Disney Fantasy, is much like a fraternal twin to the Disney Dream -- it shares the same basic structural design but there are some cosmetic differences.

Disney officials revealed many of the new features Thursday, including an interactive dinner show in Animator's Palate restaurant, two new theater productions, re-imagined adult nightclubs and a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique location. In addition to the entertainment enhancements, the cruise line also refined the Fantasy's décor.

"We had to find those places where we could differentiate the experience," Joe Lanzisero, senior vice president for creative at Walt Disney Imagineering, told a small group of reporters who were given a preview onboard the Disney Dream.

The grand atrium is where guests form their first impressions of the ship, so designers concentrated on its Art Nouveau style. They wanted a classic look, he said, and chose the peacock motif for the centerpiece chandelier. If you look closely, the same motif is repeated on the back of the bronzed statue of Mademoiselle Minnie Mouse. The colors are lighter overall than on the Dream, which has an Art Deco style, and there are more subtleties, Lanzisero said.

"There's no denying it's Disney, but in a very controlled way," he said.

Another place passengers might notice the varied palate and attention to detail is in the Royal Court restaurant, which is the counterpart to the Royal Palace on the Disney Dream. Both are designed to resemble grand dining rooms where guests might expect to find princesses sitting down for a meal.

In Royal Court, the central Austrian glass chandelier still is a focal point, but there also are multiple column tops that give the ceiling a rich look. Custom furnishings include hand-cut Italian mosaic-tile murals that pay homage to the tile murals in Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom. Features such as the wall sconces, decorative patterns, throw-style chairs and decorative floor plan are recreated from the movie "Cinderella."

The princesses even walk through the restaurant to give diners "a little bit of magic," said Jim Urry, vice president of entertainment and port adventures. But it's not a character meal in the same sense as the ones at Walt Disney World because individual meet-and-greets would slow the dinner service considerably.

"We have a loyal fan base and a high number of repeaters," said Lanzisero. "We want to give guests a reason to visit both ships."

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